Gary R. Smith

Alan Maki

Mankind is a predator by nature and a hunter by instinct. I loved to hunt. It was in my blood. And I was now ready to head back to the bush, to hunt the biggest game in the world--man. With five tours of Vietnam and 257 combat missions under his belt, Navy SEAL Gary R. Smith has witnessed hell itself. DEATH IN THE DELTA covers his third and fourth tours in Nam. From Cam Ranh Bay to Nam Canh to night insertions into Cambodia, he served as SEAL adviser to volatile Vietnamese special forces, including the fierce PRUs (Provincial Reconnaissance Units), Biet Hai, and Regional Forces. Often accompanying their missions, Smith vividly captures the nightmare of a jungle war, whether staging sudden deadly ambushes or sitting silently for hours soaking in mosquito-infested swamps. It wasn't pretty, but Smith makes no apologies for himself or his fellow warriors in this no-holds-barred account. For him, its a privilege and honor to pass on a small part of the history of the U.S. Navy SEALs experience as he saw it in Vietnam.

Diary of a Navy Seal

Death in the Delta

The memoir of a man who spent most of his career facing death. For UDT/SEAL team member Gary R. Smith, just being part of an elite military organization wasn’t enough—he had to be in the thick of the action. Because in bloody, violent Vietnam he learned there’s no stronger bond than the one forged in the gut-wrenching chaos of combat. During ambushes, PRU combat patrols, and extractions from hot LZs, Smith depended on the courage and sacrifice of his fellow SEALs, who time and again placed their own lives on the line so that he might survive. In Master Chief, Gary Smith covers his fifth tour in Vietnam and his rise to the highest enlisted rank, master chief petty officer. Characteristically, Smith holds nothing back when describing life during wartime in one of the world’s toughest fighting units. Based on the author's own experience, as well as his own and others’ diaries, letters, and documents, and on extensive interviews, Master Chief is an outstanding memoir of a warrior who answered the call to arms when his country needed him.

Master Chief

SNAKES, VIPERS, CROCS, SHARKS, AND THE VC With 257 combat missions in Vietnam under his belt, Gary Smith is a living witness to the realities of Naval Special Warfare. He worked with some of the toughest and most highly motivated men in the world, executing missions in the murderous terrain of Rung Sat Special Zone and Dung Island. The key to their success: go where no ordinary soldier would go and no VC would expect them. Though death reigned as king in the jungles of Vietnam, Gary Smith considered it a privilege and an honor to serve under the officers and with the men of Underwater Demolition Team Twelve and SEAL Team 1. Because he and his teammates, trained to the max, gave each other the courage to attain the unattainable . . . .

Gary R. Smith

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